Jeffrey Theis


Professional Details

Title Professor
Department English
Office Meier Hall 102C
Phone 978.542.6845
Email jeffrey.theis@salemstate.edu
Resume Jeffrey Theis
Photo of Jeffrey Theis

Recent and Upcoming Courses

ENG 998 Thesis Capstone
ENL 341 Shakespeare's Tragedies, Romances and Sonnets
FYEN 100 First Year Seminar (english)

Professional Biography

Ph.D., English, University of Wisconsin at Madison
M.A., English, University of Illinois at Chicago
B.A., English, Kenyon College

Professional Interests

Teaching Focus: Shakespeare and early modern British writing, introduction to literature, first year seminar, ecotheory, honors thesis seminars.

Research Interests: ecocritical (environment-focused) analysis of early-modern English writing and culture with a focus on Shakespeare’s plays and time. Current focus is on homes and the process of dwelling in Shakespeare in relation to ecosystems, changing housing practices, and climate change.

Responsibilities

English Department faculty,

Chair Program Area for General Education (PAGE)

Selected Publications

Book:

Writing the Forest in Early Modern England: A Sylvan Pastoral Nation. Duquesne University Press, 2009.

Articles:

“Plant People: Identity in Cymbeline,” in Shakespeare’s Botanical Imagination, ed. Susan Staub. Amsterdam University Press, 2023.

“Marvell’s “Upon Appleton House” and Tree-Felling: A Political Woodpecker,” in Ecological Approaches to Early Modern English Texts: A Field Guide to Reading and Teaching. Eds. Edward Geisweidt, Jennifer Munroe, and Lynne Bruckner. Ashgate Press, 2015. pp. 193-204.

"Ecocritical Milton," in Approaches to Teaching Milton's Paradise Lost, 2nd edition, ed. Peter Herman. New York: Modern Language Association, 2012.

"The 'purlieus of heaven': Milton's Eden as a Pastoral Forest," in Renaissance Ecology: Imagining Eden in Miltons England, ed. Ken Hiltner. Duquesne UP, 2008.

"Collegiality and the Department Mailbox: Subdivide and Conquer," Profession 2006. New York: Modern Language Association, 2006.

"Milton's Principles of Architecture," English Literary Renaissance 35:1 (Winter, 2005): 102-122.

"The 'ill-killd Deer:' Poaching and Social Order in The Merry Wives of Windsor," Texas Studies in Literature and Language 43.1 (Spring, 2001): 46-73.

Selected Presentations

“The Affordances of the “green plot:” Shakespeare Outdoors,” for the seminar on “Theatrical and Environmental Encounters,” Shakespeare Association of America, Denver, April 1-4, 2026.

“Arboreal Time and the Expansion of Generic Possibilities in Shakespeare’s Plays,” for the seminar on “Nature’s Time in Shakespeare,” European Shakespeare Research Association Conference in Porto, Portugal, July 2025.

“Habits of Inhabitation—Perils and Possibilities in Shakespeare,” for the seminar session “Habit-Inhabit-Habitation-Habitat,” Shakespeare Association of America, Boston, March 20, 2025.

“Poor ‘Tom’s a-cold’: Warmth, Comfort, and Housing Technology,” for the seminar session “Energy Transitions in Long Modernity,” Shakespeare Association of America, Portland, Oregon, April 11, 2024.

“Natural History and the Niche: Genre and Sites of Dwelling,” for the seminar session “Natural History Now,” Shakespeare Association of America, Minneapolis, Minnesota, March 30, 2023.